http://www.edf.org/blog/
enEcotourism in Cuba: A model for sustainable economic development http://www.edf.org/blog/2015/03/03/ecotourism-cuba-model-sustainable-economic-development
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><em>EDF's Cuba Program Director <a href="http://www.edf.org/people/daniel-whittle">Dan Whittle</a>&nbsp;co-authored this post.</em></p>
<p>With relations between the United States and Cuba <a href="http://www.edf.org/blog/2014/12/23/us-cuba-relations-put-oceans-intersection-history-and-opportunity">defrosting</a> and investment interest building for the island in the U.S. and beyond, Cuba is at a crossroads.</p>
<p>Will its tropical coastlines soon be home to towering cruise ships and sprawling resorts, or is there a more sustainable way forward for a nation that cares deeply about its <a href="http://www.edf.org/oceans/day-1-journey-cubas-underwater-eden">unique natural heritage</a>? Many Cubans think there is, and we agree.</p>
<p>Cuba's approach to conservation and environmental protection is already a model for other Caribbean nations. The country is now positioned to be a regional model also for sustainable economic development.</p>
<p>By scaling up its small and exclusive ecotourism industry, Cuba can stimulate investment and create jobs, while preserving the coral reefs and big fish that make it one of the world’s most special places.</p>
<h4>Emerging ecotourism industry points the way</h4>
<p>Today, Cuba’s pristine Jardines de la Reina National Marine Park – <a href="http://www.edf.org/oceans/day-3-journey-cubas-underwater-eden">Gardens of the Queen</a> – is home to a sustainable, but small, tourism enterprise that provides badly needed economic impetus for small coastal communities.</p>
<p>Nearly one-quarter of the families in Jucaro – the small fishing village from which trips to the Gardens depart – already have a source of income directly related to the largest marine protected area in the Caribbean.</p>
<p>The current ecotourism operation in the Gardens is tiny still; only 1,500 visitors per year are granted access to this world-class treasure.</p>
<p>But the industry also has a tiny spatial and ecological footprint, which means it could be replicated at broader scales across Cuba’s two southern archipelagos, and become an economic and ecological centerpiece for broader development plans for the region.</p>
<p>There are, of course, challenges associated with building out the ecotourism industry in the Gardens of the Queen, like elsewhere.</p>
<p>Fragile ecosystems and remote natural areas can only sustain a certain amount of infrastructure to accommodate new visitors. A careful assessment of potential environmental impacts, in accordance with existing Cuban law, should precede and guide any new tourism development.</p>
<p>If such precautions are not taken, these special places will disappear along with the tourists who loved them.&nbsp;But we feel hopeful Cuba will choose the right path, because the Cuban people know they sit atop a coral treasure box.</p>
<h4>Cuba took bold action to protect reefs</h4>
<p>Cuba’s coast is often portrayed as a place frozen in time – a selling point to tourists willing to pay a premium for a unique experience. Of course, there’s more to the story.</p>
<p>The people of Cuba have chosen to protect wide swaths of their most valuable habitats – ocean and land alike – in a national network of parks and other protected areas.</p>
<p>For marine waters and ecosystems, the goal is to eventually protect an astonishing 25 percent of Cuba's shallow-water area, with a focus on four island arcs each the size of the Florida Keys.</p>
<p>Today, the Gardens of the Queen is among just a few places in the Western Hemisphere where you can still see dense stands of elkhorn corals. They are reminiscent of the reefs that existed in Florida in the 1960s and elsewhere before disease wiped most of them from the map.</p>
<p>The Gardens also boasts many species of sharks – Caribbean reef, silky, lemon, nurse, whale sharks and more – along with large numbers of big groupers, snappers and other reef fishes.</p>
<p>These waters are special in their own right, but they’re also tightly linked to the health of coral reefs in the United States, Mexico, the Bahamas and the rest of the broader West Central Atlantic.</p>
<p>If and when Cuba matches up the ecological values of different areas in the region with their highest and best economic uses, it can create a portfolio of approaches that can serve Cubans – and those of us down-current from Cuba – now and in the future.</p></div></div></div><div class="field-collection-container clearfix"><div class="field field-name-field-blog-primary-image-fields field-type-field-collection field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="field-collection-view clearfix view-mode-full field-collection-view-final"><div class="entity entity-field-collection-item field-collection-item-field-blog-primary-image-fields clearfix" about="/field-collection/field-blog-primary-image-fields/4506" typeof="">
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<div class="field field-name-field-blog-primary-image field-type-image field-label-above"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://static.edf.org/cdn/farfuture/9kQSvpU83vvvcPxkDDPcn8qN4OX4OKY8HvmvNjaSae0/mtime:1425401017/sites/default/files/jardines_selection_nov_2010_noel_lopez_fernandez_-_378x235.jpg" width="378" height="235" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-credit field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Noel Lopez Fernandez</div></div></div> </div>
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</div></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-blog-category-for-navigati field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Blog Category for Navigation:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blog-categories-left-nav/oceans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Oceans</a></div></div></div>Tue, 03 Mar 2015 18:56:25 +0000krives12343 at http://www.edf.orgOil and water: Lessons from the Deepwater Horizon BP oil spillhttp://www.edf.org/blog/2014/04/18/oil-and-water-lessons-deepwater-horizon-bp-oil-spill
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>For many, April brings the hope of rebirth – new beginnings, springtime, Earth Day. For me, however, April always reminds me of the hopeless feeling in spring 2010, as we all watched – month after month – as huge quantities of oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico. This Sunday’s anniversary presents an important chance to review what we have learned, and not yet learned, from this tragedy, and what those lessons might mean for the future of the Gulf.</p>
<p>The U.S. was simply not prepared for a challenge of this magnitude. Despite previous spills like Ixtoc (1979), Exxon Valdez (1989), Montara/Timor Sea (2009) and many more, the protection and response systems were not in place to address a large-scale oil catastrophe. It took three months before the well could be sealed. During that time, more than 200 million gallons of crude oil gushed into the Gulf, carried by the currents, creating a widening area of oil pollution.</p>
<p>We came very close to causing an international incident. It was only through the vagaries of the Gulf Loop Current that the best beaches and most valuable coral reefs, seagrass beds and mangrove swamps downcurrent in Florida and Cuba were not slimed with U.S. oil. As it was, oil-based fisheries closures in U.S. waters extended to more than 150 miles of the edge of Cuba’s Exclusive Economic Zone. No one knows how much oil entered Cuban waters. It remains a great irony that we U.S. citizens have been so afraid of Cuban oil development, when U.S.-derived oil very nearly destroyed essential shared resources in Cuban waters in 2010!</p>
<p><img class="imgFlex caption" src="http://static.edf.org/cdn/farfuture/kPCwoQ1zjFTfxv_7SCzhepN7tcYwExy5ppDh21CjLPY/mtime:1397834384/sites/default/files/gulfloop.png" border="0" width="387" height="309" /></p>
<p class="captionText">Gulf Loop Current conformation on April 25, 2010; Credit: NOAA</p>
<p>Oiled sea birds, sea turtles and marine mammals received abundant press, all around the world. Oil-polluted beaches and marshes were on everyone’s front page. Unfortunately, the natural resources certain to be most damaged received short shrift, because they were both poorly recognized and monitored.</p>
<h4>Out-of-sight, and so out-of-mind</h4>
<p>A dispassionate scientific review makes clear that the biggest environmental impacts were felt by small and sensitive early life stages, and creatures of the deep. Especially vulnerable elements included tiny floating larvae of local seafood species (including shrimp, crabs, and many shellfish species, spawned offshore and drifting back nearshore where their nurseries occur), and similarly small larvae of species that use the Loop Current as a highway in the sea for transport of their young.</p>
<p>The plight of ancient deepwater corals and other bottom dwellers bathed in erupted oil, and then also rained upon by oil remnants sinking back from the surface, was also largely ignored. Some of those corals take thousands of years to grow.</p>
<p>In addition, oil suffocated large areas of the extraordinarily dense layers of life of the middle zone of the sea – where light does not penetrate, but now widely recognized as one of the sea’s great natural resources. This so-called “deep scattering layer” of life holds much of the ocean’s living mass, and serves as forage for squids and other residents as well as deep-diving tunas, billfishes and marine mammals.</p>
<p>The big impact on the large population of sperm whales in the northern Gulf was not from direct oiling, but from impacts through their food, occurring in the unseen depths. None of these deep resources are well-studied, and none received baseline monitoring beforehand.</p>
<p>In my view, few of the most damaged natural resources are well-known enough to calculate the natural resource damages much less the compensation payments they deserve. It will probably take many years before scientists can look back and guess the degree to which the future populations were damaged by oil pollution exposure.</p>
<p>I believe that it will turn out that use of dispersants on the bottom should never have been approved. Those materials were not only incrementally toxic, but they also greatly expanded the zone of sub-surface toxic exposure, and the complexity of transport-and-fate relationships for oil-derived pollutants, not to mention making recovery on the surface less certain. That such a decision would have to be made in the heat of response clearly illustrates the degree to which those response systems were inadequately prepared.</p>
<p>The fact that we were a mere razor’s edge away from much worse impacts – including those downcurrent in Cuba and Florida – clearly illustrates the folly in our nation’s unwillingness to engage with Cuba in managing shared resources.</p>
<p>If our “oil history” reveals one thing it is that spills and even gushers will occur again, and that we must be prepared. Perhaps the best single result of Deepwater Horizon – from the ocean perspective – it that we are now talking and planning for such responses. Many other good things are also happening in the Gulf now – sustainable commercial fisheries for <a href="http://www.edf.org/oceans/hope-gulf-reef-fish">red snapper</a> and other reef fishes, the “<a href="http://blogs.edf.org/edfish/2011/03/25/environmental-defense-fund-partners-with-gulf-fishermen-to-launch-gulf-wild%E2%84%A2-seafood-assurance-program/">Gulf Wild</a>” safe seafood program, new momentum to rebuild the <a href="http://www.edf.org/signs-progress-mississippi-river-delta">Mississippi Delta</a>, and others.</p>
<p>At the end of the day, much more needs to be done for nature and for the people of the Gulf so that this mighty ecosystem can be safe for the future.</p>
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</a></div></div></div></div><div class="field-collection-container clearfix"><div class="field field-name-field-blog-primary-image-fields field-type-field-collection field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="field-collection-view clearfix view-mode-full field-collection-view-final"><div class="entity entity-field-collection-item field-collection-item-field-blog-primary-image-fields clearfix" about="/field-collection/field-blog-primary-image-fields/4298" typeof="">
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<div class="field field-name-field-blog-primary-image field-type-image field-label-above"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://static.edf.org/cdn/farfuture/P20YcGCjDm8adx9-dwW0wDenXmglAlP069LX5FL_a_A/mtime:1397836030/sites/default/files/gulfoilcleanup_ap100702023969_rf_2.jpg" width="387" height="387" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-credit field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Dave Martin</div></div></div> </div>
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</div></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-blog-category-for-navigati field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Blog Category for Navigation:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blog-categories-left-nav/ecosystems" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Ecosystems</a></div></div></div>Fri, 18 Apr 2014 15:26:27 +0000akavyani11654 at http://www.edf.orgThe future of Galveston Bay: Implications of the oil spillhttp://www.edf.org/blog/2014/03/26/future-galveston-bay-implications-oil-spill
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>Galveston Bay is a busy body of water. It carries the traffic of the Houston Ship Channel. It is a popular recreation destination for fishermen and others. It not only serves as a home to birds and large marine animals, but also as a nursery ground for many important seafood species. It is the nation’s seventh largest estuary and among them the second most important seafood producer, behind only the Chesapeake Bay.</p>
<p>The immediate effects of the oil spill on March 22, 2014, are visible in the oil sheens and tar balls floating in the water and the “oiled” birds and animals that crews are trying to help. But, we can’t see how this heavy marine fuel, containing toxic chemicals including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), is harming shrimp, crabs, oysters, red drum and other fish that call the waters of Galveston Bay home. This contamination can hang around for a long time. Studies from the <em>2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill</em> show that even in low concentrations PAHs can disrupt the development of fish and invertebrate larvae; and in high concentrations can be lethal. <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/after-deepwater-oil-spill-once-speedy-tuna-no-longer-make-the-grade/2014/03/24/4d2e2d78-b378-11e3-b899-20667de76985_story.html">Recent reports</a> of tunas susceptible to deformities from the 2010 spill attest to the potential risks long after the spill itself is gone.</p>
<p>The timing of this spill is bad for several key species especially important to the seafood industry and consumers. Brown shrimp have already spawned offshore, and March is the month when the young ride tides coming back inshore to settle in seagrass beds and marshes, habitats that are their nurseries – and where the water is now contaminated with oil pollution. The young are especially vulnerable from now until about May or June. Young blue crabs that settled during the winter in Galveston Bay are also in danger, as are baby fish; including Gulf menhaden, a large harvest in the region’s fishing industry and a fish that is a vital food for larger fish and other animals. Marine life in the way of the oil is dying; and those not killed are exposed to toxic chemicals that could impair their reproductive potential, and some fish that feed on worms in bottom sediments may acquire and carry toxics in their tissues. The seafood “crops” in the area could well be reduced.</p>
<p>Anyone who has been to Galveston Bay has seen the many dolphins are other large marine life that frequent the area and eat these other fish. As these contaminants enter Bay food chains our concern turns not only to how these animals are affected by the spill in the short term, but also to their longer-term health, and even to whether or not seafood species that live there could constitute a human health risk that must be guarded against into the future.</p>
<p>Long-term monitoring of the ultimate footprint of this spill will be necessary so that we can continue to understand how it impacts the ecosystem, and protect people who eat seafood from the bay.</p>
<p>As reports come out about the history of the ships involved in this spill and how the accident occurred it is important to remember that in areas where a large amount of pollution exists so close to such important habitat we must do everything we can to ensure the long-term safety of the species we rely on for ocean health and our own supply of food.</p>
<p>More research must be done on the long-term impacts spills like this have on all the species above and below the water, so we can understand the total cost of these accidents as regulators and others look to address safety and other concerns in the future.</p>
<p>The species that we spend much of our time talking about in the Gulf of Mexico – <a href="http://www.edf.org/oceans/hope-gulf-reef-fish">red snapper</a> and grouper – are caught in offshore waters and will be little affected by this spill. Red snapper and some grouper species spend part of their life in the more saline parts of the bay, but relatively few of them come from those waters. Our friends at <a href="http://www.mygulfwild.us/GW/">Gulf Wild</a> do a great job making sure the offshore seafood you eat is safe and sustainable. Those fishermen are great sources for fish that are caught in the most sustainable way possible and that also undergo additional testing for toxicity.</p>
<p>We’re hearing from our fishermen partners and others in Galveston that crews are working hard to quickly clean up this spill. We hope that authorities are just as diligent in the months and years ahead to monitor and understand all of the impacts from the spill on Saturday, and help keep Texas seafood healthy and sustainable.</p></div></div></div><div class="field-collection-container clearfix"><div class="field field-name-field-blog-primary-image-fields field-type-field-collection field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="field-collection-view clearfix view-mode-full field-collection-view-final"><div class="entity entity-field-collection-item field-collection-item-field-blog-primary-image-fields clearfix" about="/field-collection/field-blog-primary-image-fields/4270" typeof="">
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<div class="field field-name-field-blog-primary-image field-type-image field-label-above"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://static.edf.org/cdn/farfuture/KrP5nytXNfPTU35SViAiWJUkUocLqJakA17DYEfC9Sk/mtime:1395842405/sites/default/files/galeveston_0.jpg" width="387" height="387" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-credit field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href=&quot;http://www.flickr.com/photos/royluck/9759983373/&quot;>roy.luck</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-caption field-type-text-long field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Image caption:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Fishing boat coming in from Galveston Bay.</div></div></div> </div>
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</div></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-blog-category-for-navigati field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Blog Category for Navigation:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blog-categories-left-nav/ecosystems" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Ecosystems</a></div></div></div>Wed, 26 Mar 2014 15:57:48 +0000akavyani11557 at http://www.edf.orgTrending: Concern for ocean health and the resources to helphttp://www.edf.org/blog/2014/02/26/trending-concern-ocean-health-and-resources-help
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>Last week, a CBS news story highlighting a 2006 study on the decline of oceans' health, was rediscovered and began trending on Facebook. With the study back in the spotlight, I was delighted to join lead author Dr. Boris Worm on <a href="http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/segment/scientists-predict-salt-water-fish-extinction-/52f3c6252b8c2a0d8e00024b">HuffPo Live</a> to discuss the study’s findings and solutions for improving the state of our oceans.</p>
<p>While great strides have been made in the eight years since the study was written, overall oceans' health continues to decline. Globally, nearly two-thirds of fisheries are in trouble with pollution, overfishing, and habitat loss all continuing to pose a very real threat to oceans and their resilience in the face of new threats, including climate change and ocean acidification.</p>
<h4>Overfishing: The root cause of oceans decline</h4>
<p>During our talk, Dr. Worm and I discussed these issues and took a deeper dive into the root cause of oceans decline—<a href="http://www.edf.org/oceans/numbers-oceans-crisis">overfishing</a>. The world’s population is rising steadily and is estimated to reach about 8 billion people by 2024 and 9 billion by 2040. As the population increases, so too does the world’s appetite for seafood. As a result, fish are taken out of the ocean faster than they can reproduce. This can cause obvious problems up to and including extinction of especially vulnerable species (thus the catchy but grim headline on the HuffPo story, “Scientists Predict Salt-Water Fish Extinction”).</p>
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<p>Frankly, extinction is not the biggest problem. Overfishing reduces the abundance of vulnerable species, but it also alters ecosystem structure and function, as other species react to the reduced abundance through what ecologists call “ecological cascades.” Valuable large fish that help maintain stable ocean ecosystems can be replaced by more opportunistic, “weedy” species. Under severe fishing pressure, the ability of marine food webs to sustain themselves can be compromised – a real problem with the challenges that lie ahead from climate change.</p>
<p>When our oceans suffer, we do too. Overfishing affects the three billion people around the world who rely on seafood as a source of protein and millions more that depend on healthy fisheries for their livelihoods. Furthermore, poor management costs the world’s fisheries $50 billion annually.</p>
<h4>Programs and resources to help</h4>
<p>But&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.538em;">this isn’t a post of doom and gloom. There are sustainable fishery management systems that are helping to keep marine ecosystems balanced, fish on our plates and wages in the pockets of the fishermen and industry workers that rely on healthy oceans. These management programs are called </span><a href="/oceans/catch-shares" style="line-height: 1.538em;">catch shares</a><span style="line-height: 1.538em;">.&nbsp; To date there are about 200 programs managing more than 500 different species in 40 countries. Many studies tout the benefits of catch shares including one worldwide review which found that catch shares significantly lower the incidence of overfishing compared to conventional management practices.</span></p>
<p>At EDF, we work to share lessons from these successful programs and develop sustainable fishery management <a href="http://catchshares.edf.org/">resources</a> that help fishermen design these programs. Along the way, we’ve partnered – and become fast friends – with fishermen, as well as NGOs, academics and others who wish to secure a healthy ocean for future generations to come. We want the passion and ideas around sustainable fisheries to go viral.</p>
<p>Perhaps, one day, the trending topics on Twitter and Facebook will be:</p>
<p>&nbsp;#CatchShares #ReviveWorldFisheries</p></div></div></div><div class="field-collection-container clearfix"><div class="field field-name-field-blog-primary-image-fields field-type-field-collection field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="field-collection-view clearfix view-mode-full field-collection-view-final"><div class="entity entity-field-collection-item field-collection-item-field-blog-primary-image-fields clearfix" about="/field-collection/field-blog-primary-image-fields/4250" typeof="">
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<div class="field field-name-field-blog-primary-image field-type-image field-label-above"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://static.edf.org/cdn/farfuture/sNbcHrCVkCvLI6oxfQAXUmPVOvZvJtLO5rl69vI2FNg/mtime:1393431544/sites/default/files/catchsharessocialmain2.jpg" width="387" height="165" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-credit field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href=&quot;http://pixabay.com/en/water-black-simple-outline-drawing-36206/&quot;>pixabay</a></div></div></div> </div>
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</div></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-blog-category-for-navigati field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Blog Category for Navigation:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blog-categories-left-nav/oceans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Oceans</a></div></div></div>Wed, 26 Feb 2014 16:19:13 +0000dupham11483 at http://www.edf.orgPreserving magic in the depths and saving undersea worlds http://www.edf.org/blog/2013/11/14/preserving-magic-depths-and-saving-undersea-worlds
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><div><img src="http://static.edf.org/cdn/farfuture/UZBK_qeXZjU_bCzUyXEz52KZyleXh1LUe5oSWrLc34Q/mtime:1376319187/sites/default/files/blog_images/coral.JPG" width="387" height="258" class="imgFlex caption" />
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<p class="captionSrc">Coral off the Georgia coast</p>
<p class="creditSrc"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/usoceangov/7309098432/">NOAA's National Ocean Service</a></p>
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<p>The deep sea has always fascinated me. It’s an unexplored world – with creatures unknown to science – right on our doorstep.</p>
<p>My own journey into the sea began very early, walking the beach after storms, carefully handling the weird creatures thrown up by waves and tides, and imagining what lurked beyond my view. As a boy, my brothers and I would seine the shallows, marveling at the flashing silver fish and odd shaped creatures we hauled in after every pass of the net.</p>
<p>As an adult, my wife and children – and brother and sister-in-law – have joined me in exploring the uppermost zone of marine life while snorkeling and scuba diving around the tropical world. Wonders exist in those top two hundred feet – but they offer only a tiny window into what lies beneath. Always, the depths have drawn me, down, down, to where the light dims and the creatures change in their colors and shapes.</p>
<h4>The race to the bottom</h4>
<p>In the early 1990s, it became clear to me that a race to the bottom was underway. Fishermen were exploring and exploiting every corner of the world ocean, at depths never before considered even potentially fishable. The race for fish was happening faster than the science could be done to develop harvest guidelines, and much faster than management systems could be created to limit harvests to sustainable levels.</p>
<p>In fact, many of those races for deepsea fish came and went before anyone outside the industry even knew they were on. It isn’t unusual to hear from fishermen friends, “Oh, we fished those seamounts [undersea mountains] out back in the 1980s.”</p>
<p>Deep-water species appear on dinner plates more often than most people think. If you eat <a href="http://seafood.edf.org/orange-roughy">orange roughy</a>, “<a href="http://seafood.edf.org/tuna">white tuna</a>” (aka escolar), <a href="http://seafood.edf.org/wreckfish">wreckfish</a>, “<a href="http://seafood.edf.org/chilean-sea-bass">Chilean seabass</a>” (aka Patagonian toothfish), royal red shrimp, or red or golden crab you are eating seafood from the deep sea.</p>
<p>The race for deep-water seafood brought other discoveries. Unknown species came up in nets, and scientific explorations were made as a result. One area of research that I became involved in was with the ancient deepwater coral reefs along the southeast coast of the United States.</p>
<p>Specimens of reef-building corals had been dredged from deep Atlantic southeast waters as far back as 1886, on the <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Albatross</span> expedition. Until the early 1990s, however, no one had any idea, of the extent of those reefs. That’s when Dr. Steve Ross, Dr. John Reed and other scientists began exploring those waters in detail. They found massive deepwater reefs, covering tens of thousands of square miles just off America’s populous East Coast. There were slow-growing corals thousands of years old, and coral mounds hundreds of feet high that were perhaps a million years old.</p>
<p>At the time, I chaired the Habitat and Environmental Protection Advisory Panel of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council, with a new mission to protect what U.S. federal law calls “essential fish habitat.” South Atlantic Council staff member Roger Pugliese brought these new discoveries to us for consideration, and it quickly became apparent that the deepwater reefs were threatened by potential bottom-disturbing fishing activities. We went to work to protect them.</p>
<h4>Saving undersea worlds</h4>
<p>Over the next decade, there was an extraordinary degree of collaboration between scientists, who shared unpublished data (which is almost unheard of) with managers eager to prevent irreplaceable coral habitat losses. The council decided to protect every single known reef – all of it! – and then proceeded to do so. The result was the creation of a zone, embracing some 23,000 square miles of “habitat areas of particular concern,” where bottom disturbing fishing was prohibited. Recently, new discoveries have resulted in additional protected areas.</p>
<p>This could not have happened without the support of fishermen targeting deepwater shrimps and crabs. Dr. Roy Crabtree, at the National Marine Fisheries Service, and I successfully worked with those fishermen to design “allowable gear zones” for each fishery, with a dual aim of protecting the corals and helping traditional fisheries to continue operation.</p>
<p>Even today, I get chills looking at the photographs captured by Drs. Reed and Ross from their deep sea expeditions, thinking of the beautiful creatures that live in those reefs. All of them might have been destroyed had not this committed partnership arisen from what began as pure scientific exploration. It was a wonderful example of scientists, managers and fishermen working together for the good of the planet.</p>
<p>What else lies undiscovered in the abyss? No one knows, though recent discoveries funded through the Census of Marine Life suggest that whole worlds remain to be found and explored, together with endless life forms as yet unseen and unnamed.</p>
<p>In fact, there is another race now underway, one dedicated to learning about deepsea life before it disappears. The world ocean is changing as it absorbs carbon dioxide, acidifies and warms. This is shifting basic ocean patterns and potentially threatening ocean life we do not yet even know exists.</p>
<p>The task for scientists, managers and fishermen is to learn enough about these as yet undiscovered worlds to help find ways to preserve them for future generations.</p>
<div><a href="/oceans/day-1-journey-cubas-underwater-eden " class="jumpOut nextButton">
<div class="boxInner">Take a virtual tour of Cuba's underwater Eden</div>
</a></div></div></div></div><div class="field-collection-container clearfix"><div class="field field-name-field-blog-primary-image-fields field-type-field-collection field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-blog-category-for-navigati field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Blog Category for Navigation:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blog-categories-left-nav/oceans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Oceans</a></div></div></div>Tue, 13 Aug 2013 21:11:17 +0000devAdmin5141 at http://www.edf.orgMomentum for restoration started with the BP spill and keeps buildinghttp://www.edf.org/blog/2013/07/25/momentum-restoration-started-bp-spill-and-keeps-building
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><div>In my <a href="http://www.edf.org/blog/2013/05/31/gulf-mexico-three-years-after-bp-part-1">previous post,</a> I surveyed the damage to the Gulf of Mexico caused by the BP oil spill. It’s serious, widespread and ongoing. The good news is that many dedicated people, at Environmental Defense Fund and elsewhere, are working hard to rebuild the Gulf, whose problems go well beyond those caused by the spill. Here is a quick overview of some of that work.</div>
<h4>Once and future fish?</h4>
<p>Perhaps the best news is that commercial fishermen and managers are working together to rebuild fish populations.</p>
<p>The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council has been among the leaders in the United States in implementing high-performance fishery management programs, including <a href="http://www.edf.org/oceans/catch-shares">catch shares</a>. Catch shares give fishermen a direct incentive to help rebuild stocks, which makes their “share” of the scientifically set allowable catch more valuable.</p>
<ul>
<li>In the Gulf, the emblematic red snapper has been in a commercial catch share program since 2007. And while it will take years to fully rebuild red snapper stocks, this fish is on its way back.</li>
<li>In 2010, 13 species of groupers and deepwater tilefishes joined the Gulf commercial catch shares program. There’s also talk of adding other hard-hit reef fish populations (vermilion snapper, greater amberjack and gray triggerfish, among others).</li>
<li>Gulf fishermen, under a program called <a href="http://mygulfwild.com/">GulfWild</a>, are adding voluntary seafood testing to verify that their catch is free of lingering oil-based pollutants from the BP spill.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Improving recreational fishing programs and practices</h4>
<p>One problem the catch share programs haven’t addressed is the Gulf’s poorly managed recreational fishing industry. Its red snapper harvest commonly exceeds set quotas by 45% to 100% or even more. This is unsustainable and needs to be fixed if the red snapper recovery is to continue.</p>
<p>Fortunately, there is progress to report on this front, too. This is especially important, since the Southeast region of the U.S. includes by far the largest number of recreational fishermen, as well as the most fish caught and landed by saltwater anglers. Many recreational fishermen care deeply about marine conservation – and their own fishing future – and are working on improved practices.</p>
<ul>
<li>Efforts are underway to develop practices that will reduce mortality that results when bottom-dwelling reef fish are brought up too quickly.</li>
<li>A group of for-hire fishing operators have banded together and are working to create pilots for high-performance management of red snapper. Their ideas are currently under consideration by the National Marine Fisheries Service.</li>
<li>Florida’s Angler Action Program, is exploring the use of on-line and mobile applications to improve recreational fishing data collection. This data would feed directly into better stock assessments, better goal-setting and improved performance tracking for recreational fishing. A similar project is underway at Texas A&amp;M’s Harte Research Institute, called “i-Snapper.”</li>
</ul>
<p>Despite this progress, the political situation in the Gulf right now is volatile.&nbsp; Recreational fishermen understandably wonder, with red snapper populations rebuilding, why this has not yet translated into improved fishing access.&nbsp; There may well be important lessons to apply from big-game management – perhaps with state-level implementation – that could make a real difference.</p>
<h4>Cuba and Mexico – hope for shared resources?</h4>
<p>There may be light at the end of the tunnel for highly migratory species like sharks and tunas, which move among the territorial waters of various nations. The Gulf of Mexico has become a test bed for sharing shark science as a basis for improved management later.</p>
<p>The Gulf has the benefit of having only two small areas of “high seas,” where no nation holds sovereignty. All of the rest is in the exclusive control of the U.S., Mexico and Cuba. Thus, these three nations could create a pilot for cooperative management of shared waters, and of the species that range across territorial waters.</p>
<p>The hope is that, by managing migratory species cooperatively, the Gulf nations will be able to rebuild threatened populations of top predators. So far, it’s encouraging that scientists from these three countries, despite all the historical and political sensitivities involved, are talking to each other.</p>
<h4>Wetland restoration and beyond</h4>
<p>Finally, there is good reason to hope that billions of dollars in damage assessments from BP will go toward restoration for the Gulf Coast, including the <a href="/signs-progress-mississippi-river-delta">Mississippi River Delta</a>. This area is critical as a nursery ground for nearshore seafood species, and for a way of life.</p>
<div><img src="http://static.edf.org/cdn/farfuture/M595chHVsf1HjtrJgnngxt6wxyM6JytboFLBY1LFrpo/mtime:1376319185/sites/default/files/blog_images/Oil_Spill.jpg" width="387" height="118" class="imgFlex caption" />
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<p class="captionSrc">Angelina Freeman, EDF Coastal Scientist, surveys oil on Elmer's Island Wildlife Refuge</p>
<p class="creditSrc">Yuki Kokubo</p>
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<p>Restoring the Mississippi ecosystem, in the face of rising seas and intensifying storms, will not be easy. This huge undertaking will require redirecting sediment from the Mississippi so that it once again helps to build coastal wetland. So far, a tremendous amount of planning has been done, and some initial projects have been funded.</p>
<h4>The Gulf today</h4>
<p>Today, the Gulf of Mexico stands at a crossroads. The oil disaster was a body blow, and there are no guarantees that others will not follow. However, the spill also served as a wake-up call to everyone who cares about the Gulf, creating momentum for restoration that might not have existed otherwise.</p>
<p>As a result, there is now real hope that our grandchildren – and those of today’s Gulf communities – will be able to experience a Gulf that remains a vibrant, living system despite the worst disaster in U.S. marine history.</p></div></div></div><div class="field-collection-container clearfix"><div class="field field-name-field-blog-primary-image-fields field-type-field-collection field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="field-collection-view clearfix view-mode-full field-collection-view-final"><div class="entity entity-field-collection-item field-collection-item-field-blog-primary-image-fields clearfix" about="/field-collection/field-blog-primary-image-fields/4222" typeof="">
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<div class="field field-name-field-blog-primary-image field-type-image field-label-above"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://static.edf.org/cdn/farfuture/WK-W0cRqZuLnzjpGbEid8sHH-ZDXPMQgA2YpxvX6LJA/mtime:1389809192/sites/default/files/gulf.jpg" width="387" height="277" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-credit field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">The Gulf of Mexico</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-caption field-type-text-long field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Image caption:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">NASA/<a href=&quot;http://www.flickr.com/photos/48722974@N07/4558031458/&quot;>flickr</a></div></div></div> </div>
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</div></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-blog-category-for-navigati field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Blog Category for Navigation:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blog-categories-left-nav/oceans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Oceans</a></div></div></div>Thu, 25 Jul 2013 11:59:48 +0000devAdmin5165 at http://www.edf.orgEven after three years we can't fully quantify the BP disaster damagehttp://www.edf.org/blog/2013/07/23/even-after-three-years-we-can%E2%80%99t-fully-quantify-bp-disaster-damage
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>The third anniversary of the <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.edf.org/ecosystems/bp-oil-disaster">Deepwater Horizon</a></span><span style="line-height: 20px;"> blowout seems a good time to take stock of the damage done to the Gulf of Mexico, and to look to its future.</span></p>
<p>The drill rig sank in about a mile of water on April 22, 2010, Earth Day, spewing more than 200 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf. It took almost a hundred days to cap the underwater well. During that time, shifting currents spread oil-based toxic substances far and wide, at many depths in the sea, exposing many forms of sea life to potentially deadly pollution.</p>
<p>Today, storms still churn up oil and perhaps one third of the toxic materials from the blowout remain loose in the Gulf. Scientists are still struggling to estimate the damage done. Also, the aging oil and gas infrastructure in the Gulf continues to be a threat to the region's environment. Just two days ago, a<span style="line-height: 20px;">&nbsp;natural gas well&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/a-natural-gas-well-is-on-fire-and-leaking-off-the-coast-of-louisiana-2013-7">burst into flame</a><span style="line-height: 20px;"> 55 miles off the Louisiana coast.</span></p>
<h4>Visible and invisible damage</h4>
<p>From the spill’s first days, the public focus was on direct human effects, on animals that were being visibly “oiled” – sea birds, dolphins and whales – and on coastal habitats onto which the oil might wash. When drifting oil made landfall on beaches and in saltmarshes, that was big news. But the worst impacts of the spill remained largely out-of-sight and out-of-mind.</p>
<p>The blown-out well is located in deepwater right at the edge of the continental shelf, in close proximity to ancient and highly vulnerable deepwater coral reefs. These were bathed in organic pollutants for months, and surveys have revealed devastation in those coral communities, including serious damage to corals that take thousands of years to grow. It will take centuries – or longer – for those reefs to recover.</p>
<p>Moreover, toxicants now cover a wide range of seafloor habitats, where they are being consumed and processed by myriad creatures that make their living by eating sediments and digesting organic matter found there. These small creatures, carrying their poisonous payloads then enter food webs when they are eaten by fish. This will be a long-term problem with no easy solution. Recent reports from the field of eyeless shrimp and fish covered with sores suggest that significant amounts of toxic substances are indeed still loose in the Gulf food chain.</p>
<p>Damage also was concentrated in the middle depths of the sea. This so-called “deep scattering layer” is home to swarms of small animals, so dense that they reflect radar signals. This abundant soup of life is the food target zone for deep-diving fishes and mammals – tunas and billfishes, dolphins and great whales. The deep-scattering layer is especially important in the “spill kill zone” of the Northern Gulf, where a large population of sperm whales lives.</p>
<p>Deep scattering layer animals were very likely obliterated for a wide distance around the well site by vast underwater plumes of dissolved and dispersed oil-derived toxicants, nearly certainly made worse by the use – including underwater – of two million gallons of dispersants. The dispersant/oil mixture has since been shown to be up to fifty times as toxic for many sea creatures as the oil by itself. Dispersant use certainly spread the toxic brew much more broadly under the sea.</p>
<p>On the surface, birds and other large animals were oiled and killed, but immeasurably greater numbers of floating baby sea creatures died as well. The oil – and the toxic dispersant brew – covered large areas of sea surface, where buoyant eggs and larvae drift, between the spawning areas at the edge of the coastal shelf and the coastal nurseries (wetlands, tidal creeks and even sandy beaches). For many key species, those larvae drifted through during the peak of the spill.</p>
<p>In addition, the Gulf Loop Current acts as a sea highway for drifting larvae of Atlantic Bluefin tuna, groupers, snappers spiny lobsters and a host of other species spawned far upcurrent. These larvae, too, drifted through the BP “kill zone” during the time of the spill.</p>
<h4>Oil-eating bacteria?</h4>
<p>As the spill progressed, many observers expressed great relief that the oil stayed offshore, and that it was apparently consumed by microorganisms, including “oil-eating” bacteria that were said to have eliminated the threat. In truth, however, there is no free lunch, even in the sea. It’s true that populations of naturally occurring but normally rare microorganisms exploded, using oil as a feed-stock. This altering ecosystem conditions along many lines. The explosion in bacteria sucked oxygen from the sea and liberated carbon dioxide, deoxygenating and acidifying mid-depth oceans waters and altering food webs in ways that may never be fully quantified.</p>
<h4>The spill’s bottom line</h4>
<p>The damage done to sea life by the blowout cannot be quantified today. No one knows how many baby reef fish and lobsters died, or how those losses will affect regional fisheries. It may turn out to be possible to make an informed estimate down the road, if extensive modeling is done to compare the numbers of adults that came from 2010 spawning to what might have been expected for at least some of the most economically important animals (perhaps red snapper and some groupers).</p>
<p>I suspect that serious reductions in so-called “year class strength” – the relative number of animals reaching the size where they enter fisheries – occurred for many important species, like shrimp, blue crabs, menhaden and others.</p>
<p>Still, with so much unknown, providing economic loss estimates for the damage done by the spill is challenging. Besides, how do you value&nbsp; pelicans, sea turtles, and dolphins? How do you value – much less replace – a million-year-old coral mound?</p>
<p>When one puts all of these pieces together, it is clear that the Gulf took a real body blow, probably much worse than people understand. Fortunately, there are forces at work that provide hope for the future of the Gulf.&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 20px;">I’ll address some of these forces in my next post, but until then </span><a href="https://secure2.edf.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&amp;page=UserAction&amp;id=2082&amp;addl_info=contentBodyBottom-link">you can help make BP pay</a><span style="line-height: 20px;">.&nbsp;</span></p></div></div></div><div class="field-collection-container clearfix"><div class="field field-name-field-blog-primary-image-fields field-type-field-collection field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="field-collection-view clearfix view-mode-full field-collection-view-final"><div class="entity entity-field-collection-item field-collection-item-field-blog-primary-image-fields clearfix" about="/field-collection/field-blog-primary-image-fields/4225" typeof="">
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<div class="field field-name-field-blog-primary-image field-type-image field-label-above"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://static.edf.org/cdn/farfuture/rQqIP6qm8k6nkSUVw3uhNngbvpa_X3K-kMcdg4c8924/mtime:1389909787/sites/default/files/deepwater_0.jpg" width="387" height="292" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-credit field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">EP12oh / <a href=&quot;http://www.flickr.com/photos/epi2oh/&quot;>Flickr</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-caption field-type-text-long field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Image caption:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">The Deepwater Horizon</div></div></div> </div>
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</div></div></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-blog-category-for-navigati field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Blog Category for Navigation:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blog-categories-left-nav/oceans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Oceans</a></div></div></div>Tue, 23 Jul 2013 16:03:15 +0000devAdmin5147 at http://www.edf.orgThe oceans are in trouble, but today's graduates can save them http://www.edf.org/blog/2013/07/03/oceans-are-trouble-todays-graduates-can-save-them
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><em> </em></p>
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<p class="creditSrc">Doug Rader</p>
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<p><em> This is an excerpt of a&nbsp;</em><em>commencement address given to the Institute for the Environment at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill’s graduating class </em><em>on Mother's Day 2013.</em></p>
<p style="line-height: 20px;">The litany of ocean threats is long. <a href="http://www.edf.org/oceans/numbers-oceans-crisis">Overfishing is rampant</a>, affecting perhaps 70% of known stocks and as much as 85% of less-well known stocks, threatening food security for a billion people.&nbsp; Most large predators, especially sharks, are severely depleted. Around the world, key habitats dwindle: coral reefs may disappear by the turn of the next century; mangrove swamps, seagrass beds and other coastal wetlands are threatened by rising seas and intensifying storms, placing important fish nurseries and coastal communities at risk. Toxic algal blooms and oxygen-poor “dead water” are increasing in scale and frequency, globally. Exotic species, including the venomous and predatory pacific red lionfish, are more prevalent every day. I myself counted 58 on one dive on one of the most remote reefs of southern Cuba.</p>
<p style="line-height: 20px;">Some scientists feel that even the most basic aspects of the sea are changing, with warming and acidifying waters shifting marine ecosystems into uncharted territory, and potentially imperiling the global current conveyor system to which all ocean life is attuned.</p>
<p style="line-height: 20px;">On its face, it seems a bleak Mother’s Day for mother earth, and a tough row to hoe for those of you poised to take the torch.</p>
<p style="line-height: 20px;">I submit to you, though, that these tales of the earth’s demise are premature, and that people working together have the potential to turn around every one of these “doom and gloom” scenarios. We have most of the tools we need, and a bright future is available. All it will take is <a href="http://www.edf.org/oceans/catch-shares">the right plan</a>.</p>
<div><img src="http://static.edf.org/cdn/farfuture/2ekD1wiPAET8RzpGM2VBNyb_H8uC2n223-j_Z3Ce2t0/mtime:1376319187/sites/default/files/blog_images/aDSC_0329.jpg" width="387" height="258" class="imgFlex caption" />
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<p class="creditSrc">Doug Rader</p>
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<p>Take overfishing as an example. We know for sure that well managed fisheries can work, with the right science, the right management, and the right incentives. In fact, we have turned the corner on rebuilding fisheries in the United States, with ever-improving stocks and more stable fishing businesses. A set of incentive-based tools that we are applying now covers 65% of us federal fisheries, and even some of the most intractable cases are on the mend – red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico, ground fishes in New England, and ground fishes on the pacific coast. The European Union is moving towards a cross-cutting policy that will rebuild the fishing power in the northeast Atlantic.&nbsp; There are answers for even the most intractable science and management problems.</p>
<p>Even the thousands of dispersed small-scale fisheries around the world are tractable with the right programs, and partnerships. A new project called “fish forever” is underway in Indonesia and the Philippines, proving concepts that should also work in other cultures around the world.</p>
<p>Lest you doubt me, let me share more direct proof from Dr. Jim Yong Kim, past president of Dartmouth and now president of the World Bank.</p>
<p>Twenty years ago, AIDS was tearing Africa apart. Everyone agreed that the problem was intractable – culture and social status prevented effective treatment, the needed drugs did not exist, and no one could afford them even if they did.&nbsp; How can people who do not read or write, or use a watch, stay on a treatment regimen they cannot afford anyway?</p>
<p>Yet, a small handful of people decided they could in fact beat aids in Africa, with the right plan. They identified every step necessary to solve this unsolvable problem, and did whatever it took to check each box in turn: developing the drugs, solving the financial problems, and building the delivery systems that were needed.&nbsp; Today, 12 million Africans are being successfully treated, breaking the back of the AIDS epidemic in Africa, and giving the continent a future.</p>
<p>Dr. Kim, himself, was one of that small group with a powerful plan. &nbsp;</p>
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<p><span style="line-height: 20px;">I recently watched as Dr. Kim challenged a group of eminent Americans to meet our gravest environmental challenges head on.&nbsp; He said, “Show me your plan to solve climate change.”&nbsp; The room erupted; we are taking him up on that.</span></p>
<p>On overfishing – the biggest single threat to the world ocean – he said, “Show me your plan to bring half of the world’s fish production into sustainability in ten years, and the rest of it in our lifetimes.”&nbsp; <a href="http://www.edf.org/oceans">EDF’s Oceans program</a> is today fully committed – through a growing partnership spearheaded by the World Bank – to make that happen. We know the steps it will take, and the partnerships we must build, and we are beginning now.</p>
<p>Together we will make these powerful plans work.&nbsp;</p>
<p>What Dr. Kim did not say, but what demonstrates in his own story, is that it also takes that small group of dedicated visionaries – the heroes.</p>
<p>Luckily for me, and for your “mother” planet, you see them standing all around you here today: your professors, your friends of today who will also be your colleagues of tomorrow.&nbsp; Perhaps most importantly, deep inside each and every one of you a hero lurks. The future of your own “mother” earth is truly in your hands.</p></div></div></div><div class="field-collection-container clearfix"><div class="field field-name-field-blog-primary-image-fields field-type-field-collection field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-blog-category-for-navigati field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Blog Category for Navigation:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blog-categories-left-nav/oceans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Oceans</a></div></div></div>Wed, 03 Jul 2013 13:47:04 +0000devAdmin5094 at http://www.edf.orgWhy the world needs more sharkshttp://www.edf.org/blog/2013/04/11/why-world-needs-more-sharks
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<p class="creditSrc">Fausto De Nevi Herrera</p>
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<p>The dire straits facing sharks around the world is a major theme in many gloom and doom predictions about the fate of the oceans. And there is plenty of reason for worry. Many shark populations are estimated to be at less than 10% of original levels, with some species possibly in danger of extinction. This is bad news not only for sharks, but for the many cultures that rely on them for protein in their diets.</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 20px;">Ecologists, too, warn of the effects of the decline in shark species and other top predators on ocean ecosystems. Eliminating sharks may induce what scientists call “ecological cascades,” where one effect induces another, and so on through the living world.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>One example of that process is the rise in populations of certain rays – &nbsp;key shark prey – in regions where shark populations have declined. If there are too many bottom feeding rays, that may threaten seagrass beds and the shellfish that inhabit them. Those seagrass beds also serve as nurseries for many other species. So losing sharks may seriously degrade marine ecosystems, which could threaten the human fisheries tied to them. In addition, sharks can help control populations of invasive and exotic species – a growing problem as ocean ecosystems change.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p><h4>And Now the Good News</h4></p>
<p>Fortunately there is some good news amid all the bad. Careful fisheries management can help sustain shark populations. For example, spiny dogfish sharks, once seriously depleted in northeast United States waters, have come back much faster than expected and now support a greatly expanded fishery. Blacktip sharks in the Gulf of Mexico were just determined to be in healthy condition as a species, capable of supporting carefully managed fishing, including possible high-performance “<a href="http://www.edf.org/oceans/catch-shares">catch shares</a>” fisheries. There is even some evidence that great white shark populations along the California coast may be increasing in response to careful management and improving prey populations.</p>
<p>Individual nations are making important down-payments to help rebuild shark populations. Well-designed marine conservation areas and other types of shark sanctuaries can provide real benefits, if linked to sustainable fishing in waters through which sharks migrate.&nbsp; I have seen the potential first-hand, diving with abundant large sharks in <a href="http://blogs.edf.org/edfish/2010/11/24/diving-in-the-jardines-de-la-reina-gardens-of-the-queen-in-southeastern-cuba-2/">Cuba’s Gardens of the Queen</a> (Jardines de la Reina) National Park.&nbsp; But even there – more than fifty miles of the south coast of Cuba – sharks are taken when they wander outside the park, clear evidence that sustainable fishing must be tied to area-based management.</p>
<p>In addition, nations are beginning to work together to create joint solutions to the problem of preserving migratory fishes like sharks. The United States, Mexico and Cuba are sharing shark population information as a first step towards working together on a shared approach to managing sharks that migrate back and forth through the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. This <a href="http://www.edf.org/oceans/unique-partnership-secure-future-sharks">tri-national program</a> is in its early stages, but its potential is exciting.</p>
<p>So, if the news on sharks today is often bad, it isn’t always so. And the good news gives one a peek at a possible future in which populations of shark and other top predators are rebuilt, with the result that whole marine ecosystems will become more stable and resilient. There is much work to do, but a great vision is here today to power it.</p></div></div></div><div class="field-collection-container clearfix"><div class="field field-name-field-blog-primary-image-fields field-type-field-collection field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-blog-category-for-navigati field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Blog Category for Navigation:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blog-categories-left-nav/oceans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Oceans</a></div></div></div>Thu, 11 Apr 2013 14:06:03 +0000devAdmin4898 at http://www.edf.orgSurfing the Seas with Crush and Squirthttp://www.edf.org/blog/2013/02/25/surfing-seas-crush-and-squirt
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<p class="creditSrc">Image by Dylan Baist-Bliss/<a href="<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbaist/7678962530/">http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbaist/7678962530/</a>">Flickr</a></p>
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<p>Anyone who saw “Finding Nemo” remembers the cool sea turtles – including Crush and his son— dude! – Squirt riding the East Australian Current.&nbsp; What few realize is that currents like the “EAC” stitch together all of the oceans of the world into a single global fabric.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Differences in temperature, salinity and density drive currents that move water, creating a giant system of currents called the “global ocean conveyor” or thermohaline circulation – THC for short.&nbsp; These currents also move tropical energy from equatorial zones into the northern ocean, one of the factors that keep Northern Europe warm enough to live in.</p>
<p>“Finding Nemo” got it right in showing how this current system conveys animals from one place to another.&nbsp; In the Atlantic, baby sea turtles ride ocean currents away from the beaches where they were born, into the vast aquatic jungle of the Sargasso Sea, and then back to those same beaches again when they are old enough to reproduce.&nbsp; </p>
<p>American eels do the same thing, but in reverse; transparent baby eels, spawned in the Sargasso Sea, ride the great wheel of the North Atlantic to coastal estuaries and freshwater streams. There they grow to adulthood, before making the return pilgrimage to the Sargasso. &nbsp;</p>
<p>Salmon in the North Pacific have their own wrinkle on this pattern. Stream-spawned young ride massive current-driven gyres, around and around, until they are old enough to return to spawn and die in the streams where they began life. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>Myriad other species have adapted their life histories to this fundamental ocean architecture.&nbsp; Many reef fishes and invertebrates like lobsters spawn at certain places and certain times, producing buoyant larvae that float &nbsp;down-current for weeks or months (sometimes more than a year for spiny lobsters), until they find the right conditions or habitats for them to &nbsp;settle on the bottom and live their lives. </p>
<p>Sometimes larvae circle in place, in localized gyres, repopulating the habitats where they were spawned; sometimes they are delivered far down-stream to habitats hundreds of miles away.&nbsp; In that way, a grouper or snapper spawned in Banco Chinchoro, off Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, may populate coral reefs off Florida or rocky reefs off North Carolina. Adult groupers often move back up current to spawn, giving their offspring a fair chance at the same journey to good quality habitats they made. Even offshore fishes are adapted to this pattern.&nbsp; </p>
<p>The best remaining spawning ground for North Atlantic Bluefin tuna is actually in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Adults swim against the currents south to Florida, and then through the Straits of Florida and into the Gulf, where they spawn, allowing their young to drift back with the currents, feeding all the while, to the cold waters of the North Atlantic. Many sharks do approximately the same thing, timing their migrations and reproduction to assure that their babies will find the best nurseries.&nbsp; </p>
<p>Again and again, this pattern of life in the ocean repeats.</p>
<p>Protecting all of these creatures requires that the nations whose waters hold these long distance swimmers work together to protect spawning grounds, nursery grounds, shared&nbsp; adult populations, and – perhaps most importantly – the integrity of the THC itself.&nbsp; </p>
<p>Disturbing recent science suggests that global warming could, at some point, alter this great circulating system. There are many factors involved, and the computer models are ambiguous, but the possibility is very real. </p>
<p>This threat to the great THC is one more good reason for the world to get serious about lowering global warming emissions, while we do everything we can – and there is a lot we can do &nbsp;– to protect the ocean’s reefs,&nbsp; spawning grounds and nurseries, and nourish abundant fish populations.</p></div></div></div><div class="field-collection-container clearfix"><div class="field field-name-field-blog-primary-image-fields field-type-field-collection field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-blog-category-for-navigati field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Blog Category for Navigation:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blog-categories-left-nav/oceans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Oceans</a></div></div></div>Mon, 25 Feb 2013 17:26:46 +0000devAdmin4909 at http://www.edf.org